Monument record MHG36549 - INVERGORDON, ROYAL NAVY PORT FUEL DEPOT (Parent Record)

Royal Navy Port Fuel Depot, Invergordon. A large number of brick concrete and steel fuel tanks for the Royal Navy, constructed in several phases between pre-1913 and the 1960s.

The first tanks were constructed prior to WWI, with the first shipments received in 1913. <1>

Brick, concrete and steel RN fuel tanks for Naval port. Piers and oil tanks and many other buildings. (Associated SMR NH76NW0129). <2>

Martin Briscoe has uploaded photographs of this site to the Highland HER Flickr group. The images are linked directly to this record, but follow the link to the Flickr group (at the bottom of this record) to see further comments. <3>

The site was visited and photographed in 2015 as part of the ARCH project 'Invergordon in World War I'. The first oil storage tanks at the Seabank Tank Farm were ten built before WWI to provide fuel for naval ships who used the port. During WWI an additional 31 tanks were built to the east. Photographs show that they were painted with camouflage paint. In the mid 1930s another four tanks (nos. 43-46) were constructed as well as more substantial berms around many of the tanks, and deep ditches. Tank 37, however, dates to after WWII. It is not on 1947 aerial photographs, but appears on plans in private collection from the 1960s. The tanks were covered in bricks during WWII, but most of the bricks were subsequently taken away. All survive with the exception of WWI Tank 13 which was hit by a German bomber in 1941. <4>

The tank farm was considered for listing at Category A by Historic Environment Scotland in 2016. <5>

See MHG30324 for pre-WWI tanks
See MHG56910 for WWI tanks
See MHG56911 for interwar period tanks
See MHG56912 for post WWII tank